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By:Daniel Flynn|GOSTICAYou already know you’ve got some spiritual gifts, the
problem is that we forget…and by forget I mean everyday we forget. If you’re like me you forget every hour. As a
yoga teacher, entrepreneur, and business coach I see these gifts go under
utilized all the time.

I’ve created a personal resource list for building your
spiritual capacity so that you can step into your life with more power and
grace. Peppered throughout this list are
short activities that can be done right now to build up your spiritual
gifts. A little bit a day will go a long
way.

We so often let the intellect override our inner
voice. Think of intuition as residing in
the body as your physical sensations.
When confused about a course of action to take, double check with your
body sensations, especially the belly area.
‘Yes’ usually feels more expansive and ‘no’ feels tight and constricted.

You can cross reference your intuition with your thinking
mind, but don’t let the mind call all the shots; often the body, the inner
voice, knows best.

02: The Power of Your Outer Voice

Tension for many of us builds in the neck and throat,
inhibiting our ability to use our voice with confidence. Take time to sing a favorite song everyday,
singing and laughing the tension out of the body. Think about daily cleansing breaths with
sound also.

Try this: Inhale
your arms up into a “V” above your head and exhale with a long slow
“ahhhhhhhhh” slowly increasing the volume as you go. The universe wants to hear your voice!03: Deeply Connected Silence

Feeling lost or confused about a decision? Going for a
hike in nature and being quiet for a few hours will allow the deeper answers to
find you. At least once a week, I try to
get out for a walk in the forest and it is then, in the stillness, that my
emotional blockages and my life passions become clear.

Challenge yourself to stop along the way and be still so
you can be open to your silence.

04: Breathing Yourself into Being

Every time we remember to breathe deeply we stimulate the
“rest and digest” nervous system and get out of the “fight, flight, freeze”
panic mode. In our conscious breath, we
reduce stress and anxiety and invite calm.
As I mentioned, we forget every day, every hour, to breathe deeply.

Try this on, for one day set a timer to go off every
hour. Let the chime be a reminder to
take three inhales and long exhales. Be aware of the calming effect of your
breath.

05: Your Gaze

As a yoga teacher I see students, even advanced ones,
holding a pose very still while their eyes are wandering. Wandering eyes means the mind is wandering
too. Go to the next level and still the
eyes. This goes not only for yoga poses but also for communicating with others.

Challenge yourself to stay connected with your gaze to
others. For fun and focus try tree pose
while staring at a fixed location for one minute, several times throughout the
day. Yes, yoga can be that portable and
deployable, and your gaze will become more focused.

06: Your Pack o’ Peeps

Many of us have the “lone wolf” mentality when it comes
to self-improvement; we think “I’ve got
to solve this on my own”. Imagine the
people in your life as part of a personal growth tool belt. There are so many
people around you waiting to be there for you, break through and reach out;
call on them for feedback.

As a first step, brainstorm a list of 12 people to whom
you’d like to be closer and then schedule lunch dates with them
individually. I try to have at least one
meeting a week with a friend to maintain and strengthen my openness and
connection.

07: Get in Your Friend’s Tool Belt

This goes hand in hand with the previous gift. You are part of someone else’s community,
someone else’s tool belt.

Step up and reach out to a friend. The greatest gift we can offer is often just
being there and listening to a friend and reflecting back that they have been
heard and are not alone.

08: Being Someone’s Karate Kid Master

Selfless service makes you feel good. If you are not already volunteering some of
your time can you, for one or two hours a week?
I’ve been a volunteer yoga teacher for teen boys in lockdown for drug
and alcohol offenses. It is quite
challenging, yet, every time, I leave feeling so energized by actively being
the change I want to see in the world.

Try volunteering in a soup kitchen, at the senior center,
the animal shelter. It will fill your
heart with compassion and joy, and your time will be well spent.

09: That 9-5 thing

If you are currently working, whether you love it or not,
use your current job as a laboratory to see what activities you love to
do. As months, years, and careers go on
you have the opportunity to do more and more of what you love to do. I’ve had at least 20 jobs in seven different
careers. With each one I’m doing more
and more of what brings me joy. So allow yourself to look at your job as a
laboratory of experimentation.

10: Your Bliss!

What do you love to do?
Get laser clear with this one.
Try this: Write five activities
that you love to do on a piece of paper and put it on the wall where you will
see it everyday. I did this a number of
years ago and it’s been amazing. All
five are now in my life in a much bigger way.

When you do things you love to do, you create more joy
and self-worth and you have more energy to take on the world, in bliss!

11: Your Aches and Pains

I’m talking both physical and emotional pain. These pains help us to be more compassionate
with ourselves and empathetic with others. Our pain is really just saying “I need some attention.” Try this for two
minutes: Put your attention on a
physical or emotional pain you currently have and send your breath there.

Allow the pain to soften with each exhale. These moments
of self-care will ripple out into your life, increasing your connections with
others.

12: The Yuck Yucks

Everyone has a unique sense of humor. Enlightenment is all about lightening up and
not taking ourselves too seriously!
Here’s a challenge: Get together
with a friend you laugh easily with and dive into the places where you’ve felt
some avoidance.

Let yourselves riff; switch roles and act out each as the
other. Do random voices of other people
talking about difficult topics. What
would Katharine Hepburn have to say about it?
or Sean Connery? or Daffy Duck?
Laugh long and well.

13: Your Life History

Getting older is amazing.
Each year you acquire 365 days of data which allows you to see trends in
your beliefs and behaviors. With this
information you can make wiser choices.

Allow yourself to look at your history with wonder and
gratitude, then bring that wisdom into the current moment to help inform your
decisions. Incorporate your friends, sharing stories and histories together.

14: Your Screenplay

You’ve been writing the story of your life since the day
you were born. Stop and ask the
question: “What have I written that I’m
currently acting out?” In this moment
you can realize that you are not just an actor playing out the story but you
are the writer and producer as well!

You can change the story AND the meaning you’ve given it
to serve your highest purpose. Write a
hero’s story, not a “down on your luck” story.

15: Your Creativity

When we are in alignment with our hearts, ideas come
unfiltered by the fear of being rejected or the attachments to being
“good”. Put yourself in situations
where you get to brainstorm. Help a
friend come up with a tagline for their business, make up random songs as you
do the dishes, create new yoga poses based on characters from Lord of the
Rings.

The point is to just put it out there, to riff, without
attachment to outcome. Let yourself
groove and improvise, feed your creative muse.

16: Your Alignment

This is looking at the big picture. This is the meta-awareness combining body,
mind and spirit. Are you in
alignment? Are things in flow?

Your task is to
pay attention to your alignment and take action to get yourself back to your
place of power, joy, and focus. When in
doubt come back to this list and see what’s not activated.

This post was republished from gostica.com. You can find the original posthere.